Harry Potter and the Stake Out
by Bean in Action
Summary: What happens when Harry Potter keeps on hitting bad luck? He goes on another adventure of course! This time with George Weasley and the adventure is a stake out. Harry and George must pose as Muggles and protect a Muggle family from unknown dangers.
1. About the story

Chapter 0: A new adventure in the making!

Harry meets George while in training for being an auror. All is not well in the wizarding world with corrupt wizards aplenty and good wizards not so many. Harry's reputation as a skilled wizard has taken a nose-dive. People even doubt if Harry had defeated Voldemort, or if Voldemort really did have 2 left feet, or any feet at all, seeing that he great resembled a snake.

"He is surrounded by friends and protected by great wizards" echoes in his ears all the time. Voldemort had said this about Harry and it had an unfortunately shade of truth in it. Determined to prove himself and wanting to marry Ginny in the process, Harry decides to take matters in his hand. He eyes a top level assignment kept only for the best Aurors. Not wanting Hermione or Ron's help, and with George desperate for some action to take his mind off Fred's death, as well as to have new ideas for his joke shop, George and Harry team up for this super secret assignment. But first, they must steal the assignment from the Ministry and find out what they have to do in the first place!

The assignment turns out to be unexpectedly dull. A boring look out of a Muggle family, that is important only because of a special requested by the Muggle Prime Minister. The assignment turns troublesome when George and Harry get involved with the Muggle family and must now hide their magical identity and their assignment while at the same time looking perfectly natural. Of course things have to get even worse when the ministry finds out about the assignment and decides to 'help' Harry by sending wizards with incomplete service-to-community time. Service-to-community time is a law to ensure every wizard helps with the rebuilding. But the new team turns out to be Luna, Neville, and an unwilling Malfoy. They join to support Harry-George team, much to the chagrin of everyone concerned. With Luna acting as Harry's wife, Neville as the local gardener, and Malfoy as Harry's financial consultant plus legal rep, things start to get chaotic. And from here things go even more horribly wrong when Ginny and Dean find out about Harry and luna's new 'secret' marriage status. Harry's nightmare have only just started because the Muggle family is unknowingly keeping secrets of an old, dark magic and are threatened by death eaters wanting use the magic to revive Voldemort's body from the grave. Will things go alright or will everything turn out to be a complete mess for Harry and his futures plans for a wife and a nice job? And will George find peace as well as some new ideas for his joke shop?

Read on to find out!


	2. Chapter 2: Harry's Reflections

**Author's Notes:**

Thank you for reading :)

The last chapter was more like a description of this fan fiction. I wrote chapter 0 in it. However, because it appears as chapter 1, I'll set this chapter as chapter 2.

From here, the story actually starts. However, I often felt that many fan fictions do not mention how long they will be or where the story will go. Hence, the introduction in first chapter. I will also go on to mention that I have planned about 27 chapters for this fan fiction and each chapter will be 1000-1500 words. I will try to upload 1 to 2 chapters every week, which shouldn't be too difficult unless someone is out to make life difficult for me (the usual enemies: exams, friends, movies, sleeping whole days!):D

Finally, the story is inspired by the movie "Another Stake Out", which I found to be fun and amusing. I hope I can make this fiction fun and humorous too!

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter was written by J.K. Rowling and published by Bloomsburry Books and as such they share all rights to make money of Harry Potter and company. All I'm doing is using the characters to write a story that I hope will pay homage to the great characters created by J.K. Rowling and allow others to enjoy more adventures with Harry Potter in them.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Reflections<strong>

It was almost a year since the battle of Hogwarts and the year had changed much of the wizarding world that Harry once knew. However, matters such as wizard wars were insignificant for the weather, for the weather didn't really care for what was or what had been. And so, this particular day turned out a nice, warm summer afternoon; the kind that isn't very hot and keeps sending offers of a fun outdoors. For Harry, enjoyment had to wait, good weather or not. After all he was an in-training Auror and on an assignment. Harry had decided to fulfill his ambition of becoming an Auror rather than join Hogwarts for the final year.

Unexpectedly though, Harry's recent assignments had been ordinary inspection and desk work. That's not to say Harry didn't get exciting and dangerous work. But it seemed that on the day of Voldemort's death, Harry had lost some of his great ability to make good judgments, or he simply ran out of luck during tough situations. In many of his initial assignments, Harry proved to be quick and efficient, often thwarting multiple dark wizards at a time. However, what usually accompanied was a series of bad luck that somehow saw Harry's assignments escaping from the jaws of capture.

Some blamed it on a permanent curse of Voldemort, others on Harry's lack of understanding of the many types of dark magic existing in the wizarding world. Some others even claimed that Harry was a poor wizard to begin with and somehow Voldemort managed to kill himself by being highly unpopular (now that Voldemort was dead, the dark followers unashamedly expressed their hatred for Voldemort). Harry himself hardly spoke of these matters to anyone, even to Ron and Hermione. But such thoughts constantly invaded his mind and set him to wonder why he seemed to have such a tough time getting a grip with tough situations. Harry decided not to ask other people, even his best friends, because he had to settle this matter by himself. He may have already relied too much on friends to defeat Voldemort and in the process many had lost lives or loved ones. In his heart, Harry was starting to feel that he had to become an independent, capable wizard and only then would he be able to protect friends, family, wizards, Muggles, and everyone from a repeat of what had happened at Hogwarts.

So on this day Harry had a rather uneventful assignment. But dull as the assignment might be, Harry was happy that he would get to see George Weasley, the Weasley twins who had survived the Battle at Hogwarts. His assignment was to check up on all shops that sold joke items, and the Weasley Joke shop was undoubtedly the most popular. The Ministry had become very cautious after Fred and George's shop sold items to Malfoy (even though he was in disguise), which were then used during Dumbledore's assassination attempt. Therefore, Harry was assigned the task of checking if any shop kept dark items that could cause perilous danger for the general public.

Despite Kingsley being Minister, the Ministry's way of managing things were still a little weird or so Harry thought. At least they were being overzealous in trying to stop dark magic. And despite the excitement of seeing George, Harry was more than a little worried if George would actually let him see all the stuff they were selling.

Harry had left his desk in the Auror's office and went down to the main reception area of the Ministry. By the time Harry stopped musing, he found himself staring at a large statue displaying Hogwarts around which wizards of all ages, giants, centaurs, and elves holding hand while making a pose that looked like they were trying to defend Hogwarts.

At least they had included elves and the giants, thought Harry. Last year when he had seen the statue, it depicted the authority of wizards over Muggles, with ordinary folk trampled under the feet of the wizards. This was much better than last year's statue but still needed work. For one, there were no goblins. But he was sure that the goblins were unlikely to get a position in the status soon because of a war-like situation with the wizards over the control of Gringotts. Harry's own explanation to the Ministry as to why he, Ron and Hermione had to break in to Gringotts made many wizards feel hostile towards goblins (especially after the way Griphook had behaved). On the other hand, the goblins were angry with the wizards because of Voldemort's hostile takeover of Gringotts. Thinking of all think made Harry dizzy.

Harry felt very glad he wasn't in the political department and hoped all the confusing chain of events could be sorted out by the brains of the like of Hermione. And he wished her all the best because she was going to start working in Ministry's political department after finished her 7th year at Hogwarts soon. In any case, Harry was glad that Ministry wasn't getting Hagrid's opinion. If Hagrid had his way, Aragog would have been there too with its spidery eye. Harry let out a shudder at the thought.

Thinking of Hermione and Ron going to Hogwarts for their 7th year, made him a little sad and depressed. He had chosen not to stay in Hogwarts, but had decided to move on to his chosen path. Harry wanted to feel independent, and to reach his own destination by his own chosen way. "He is surrounded by friends and protected by great wizards" echoes in his ears all the time. Voldemort had said this about Harry and Harry could not deny the truth in this. And while it made him happy to think that he had friends that would be with him all his life, he at least had to take the first steps in his Voldemort-free life by himself and settle himself down. He had to prove himself ready for the world and marry Ginny as soon as possible. Of course all this thinking didn't make him sure that he had done the right thing by starting Auror-training immediately. However, his thoughts easily drifted towards Ginny and he got a warm, relieved feeling course through his mind. She would finish Hogwarts next year and then they would get married. Or be married as soon as Harry's last year of his 3 year training finished (he was currently about to start his 2nd year). Without the need to worry about gold, Harry had rather foolishly tried to propose to Ginny earlier. But that had ended in a major disaster. The feeling of embarrassment flushed over Harry causing him to slap his head hard saying "What an episode! Worthy of a sack of dung-bombs in the hand of Peeves". He had said it rather loudly because quite a few people were saying staring at him.

Not wanting to give people more reason to think he was completely lame, Harry apparated to Diagonal alley to start his assignment.


	3. Chapter 3: An Encounter

**Author's Notes:**

Its been a while since my last chapter and the enemies have been at work! Fortunately, waking up early in the morning and working with freshly brewed tea turned out to be excellent remedy!

This chapter turned out to be somewhat long and not quite as humorous as I would have liked. I hope I haven't entered my writer's block on my 2nd chapter of my first write up (horrible thought!). However, I hope that the events in the story go in a smooth flow so that everything makes sense, despite the story's slow progress. But I mentioned that I would cover the whole story in 27 or so chapters (nice to be optimistic) and I want to make sure there is a steady pace. I hope the slow pace doesn't bore everyone away!

**Disclaimer:**

Harry Potter and all the characters therein in the book belong to J.K. Rowling and her publisher. This work is only for non-monetary gain and therefore, I hope, Rowling, Bloomsbury and any person/company affiliated with Harry Potter do not consider my work as anything more than a free fan fiction. (I love writing these complicated, technical and legal sentences !)

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><p><strong>Chapter 2:<strong> An Encounter with George

Harry appeared just inside the Leaky Cauldron, the shop that was also a passageway for wizards to enter Diagon Alley. Harry stopped where he had apparated to and looked around the place. It was a long time since Harry had been here and the desire to stare around greatly overcame him. There were a few wizards, some with odd dresses and expressions, sitting on old fashioned square tables and chairs. Tom was not around, and another plump wizard seemed to be in charge of serving visitors.

But Harry journey into memory lane was rather quickly stopped by a rather unhappy wizard blocked by Harry and his untidy hair.

"Oye you! This place is not a museum", grumbled the moody looking wizards who looked like he had a fight with a dragon and needed a lot of drinks to forget about the incident.

Harry was slightly ruffled but peacefully moved out of the way, 'What a way to finish a perfect apparition!', thought Harry. The grubby looking wizard gave Harry a mean stare and moved on towards the counter.

Harry motioned to the caretaker that he was only passing through. With a quick nod to everyone sitting-who were now staring at him quite indecently-Harry started to walk towards Diagon Alley side door. He was almost out of the shop when a chubby wizard caught his attention. The red hair on the wizard was unmistakable but Harry had to blink a few times to recognize the chubby characteristics with lazy attire and dull eyes that staring back at him.

"George Weasley!"

"Harry, why its Harry Potter", replied George turning his full attention towards Harry. Possibly he was the only one who had shown only remote interest in the episode with the moody, depressed and quite mean looking wizard, but even he had not missed out on the best part.

"Mate, you are losing your charms. Back there. Should have shown him a thing or two about manners. Even a stare would have done! Don't be too nice in this business of catching runaway dark wizards."

"Nice to see you too", said Harry with a smile, "And, a little discretion doesn't hurt. In the Auror business one has to be discrete."

"I seriously doubt that Auror business is secret or discrete, if Kingsley is any representation. And your hair and scar give you away immediately. You need more work on a disguise." replied George.

"And I hope your current presence is only a temporary answer to some highly unwelcome marriage proposals." Harry slyly put in, but secretly hoping George hadn't become the sentimental kind. He seemed to have changed quite a lot.

"Too many women wanted me, mate. Gotta let others have a chance also. By the way, this nice tummy is the effect of a delightful combined project that I had with Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor. Madam Florean returned after her kidnapping and was happy to try a new business venture of magically improved ice cream. Didn't work out though, people couldn't seem to stop laughing after eating the ice cream, and I had to eat all the 800 scoops of our inventory. Didn't mind that failure." replied George happily rubbing his tummy in a very un-Weasley twin like manner.

"I hope you are not trying to sell me one of your joke shop items. Especially not the kind that you used to change people into a romantic gentle-wolf or a juice-loving vampire. Last I remember of that, the vampire tried to fly away from the window, only to crash into the food table and the wolf tried to hang upside down on the chandelier and bought the whole roof down", replied Harry venting out his fears by teasing George.

"You didn't expect that the disguises were the real thing? The volunteers for the vampire and wolf were just trying too hard to please some silly girls and forgot who was who. Good help is hard to come by!." replied George with some, probably faked, dismay. "So Harry Potter, defeater of the darkest wizard should not have to worry about a thing. Especially when I have just the item in the shop for you. It needs a little bit of work still…Come I'll show you at the shop…the jokes are all waiting for me. You know, to use them !"

'Getting a little soft on the joke sides, George', thought Harry.

Besides the rather bad jokes, Harry was also more than a little worried about trying one of George's joke items, especially from the incomplete category. He had seen what had happened when the twins used to experiment on themselves in Howgarts or paid for the service of young wizards to test their joke items. Thinking about the twins at the peak mischievousness at Hogwarts made his heart do a flip. Harry had not asked George about the pain of losing his twin brother, and now he could see how much it had affected George. If anything, George looked like a 40 year old married man with 3 super active kids. Not that Harry would mind looking like that if he was married to Ginny. And this sudden thought of Ginny made Harry's heart do a double flip. Anymore and I'll die of a somersaulting heart, thought Harry.

Turning his attention back to his job, Harry realized he could be glad to complete his assignment without having to use words like "ministry assignment". The ministry had a highly tarnished image and the whole wizarding world felt a satisfaction decrying the ministry. And this was with Kingsley making a very good Minister. He wondered what would happen if a Minister like Fudge was in authority. But then again, people would probably love to buy into the false promises of Fudge. Politics! What a nuisance, thought Harry. And all the confusion of politics made Harry's head spin again.

By this time, George had led Harry out of the Leaky Cauldron, through the magic brick wall and into Diagon Alley. Once into Diagon Alley, all worries left Harry and a sense of wonder and happiness immediately filled into him. He, Harry, belonged to the Wizarding world and there was a flow of magic here that made him feel like he truly was a wizard.

"Good to be here", said Harry more to himself than George.

"I know, the feeling is simply great! Mind you things are not that good here. The economy is terrible. Don't make a point of being in the Ministry here. People still feel they have not been compensated for the destruction during the time of He-Who-Must-, I mean Voldemort."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind", replied back Harry knowing that more than one time in his life, Harry had felt the same hatred for the Ministry. And now Harry was part of the Ministry and that did feel odd.

But Harry had little time for past memories of Ministry. Harry and George had turned left and could now see the many of the shops of Diagon Alley. Harry couldn't resist the urge to stop and look around at all the shiny and exciting new equipments, especially at Quality Quidditch Supplies. Even George felt like stopping at the Florean Fortescue's Ice cream parlour to try out the new Water Melon and Dragon Fire flavor ice cream. Harry was glad that Florean had returned after being captured by one of Voldemort's supporters, but he felt it would be better to go directly to George's joke shop.

Soon they made their way through Diagon Alley and all its wondrous shops, to eventually reach a shop named Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The outer display had a few ordinary looking brooms that said:

"Upside down brooms: See the world in a new way—travel upside down. Or just play a trick on your mate"

"Bull fight training brooms: Popular with both Muggles and Wizards alike. Now you can experience bull riding without all the violence. Warning: Broom may hit back".

On the other side of the display there were powders in different containers with a big title shouting out to anyone who was nearby "Powders to help you enjoy all the best of a romantic relation..."

"Love powder to add into someone's food. A few sprinkles and he or she will dote you for 2 days! No guarantees after that !"

"Face powder to make you so lovely or handsome that your friend will finally realize you are his or her life partner. Get ready to tie the nuptial bonds with this"

"Glitter power to make you shine like your favorite movie or poster star"

"Jealousy powder to make someone realize how valuable you are"

"Pimple powder to make it easy to tell someone 'its not you, its me' when you breakup"

Harry heard the overly loud advertisements and couldn't help mention to George "Kind of cheesy advertisement, isn't it?"

George grinned, "When you are in the joke shop, everything must have a flair and a sense of joke to it. Come I wanted to show you this particular item". George unlocked the shop and let Harry into the shop. It wasn't opening time as yet and with the general economic situation still quite poor, working hours had been reduced. At this particular time in the morning, there was no one in the shop.

"Don't be shy. Here, have a look", said George, handing harry a delicate glass box with small sealed liquid tubes inside.

The label read:"Perfect man for the day: Make yourself smart, handsome, well dressed and have the perfect manners and luck for one whole day"

"No way", cried Harry in surprise. "You have managed to commercialize Felix Felicis. Is that really possible?"

"Welcome to my humble place for finding laughs, love, and a lot of mischief", grinned George. "We cannot disclose all our secrets of our items you know. But as our first and only investor, I think I'll let you know that it has a very, very diluted Felix amount. Felix Felicis is hard to come by and most of our stock doesn't get through the rigorous preparation."

"That's good to know", replied Harry reassured. If George had used Felix Felicis, Harry would have had to remove the items as dangerous. Imagine telling George that their item was dangerous. Harry would forever be assigned to the Ministry-loving category.

George cut short his thoughts, "However, it is for the better, because I found that "luck" comes directly from making the person feel confident. You know heightened sense of awareness, more comfort with the body, natural motion, and excellent appearance", continued George. "But it still needs some final wand strokes. How about trying it out? It might change your luck. From what the Daily Prophet has been saying, you have been having a lot of hard time catching the bad wizards".

Harry didn't reply immediately. He knew the portion would likely destroy his clothes or balloon him up. Or worse yet, make him into a really handsome wizard with no sense of self esteem.

While Harry was pondering what to do, George bought Harry some tea and poured him a cup. "Try adding in the cup of tea if you like".

Harry took out one tube, opened it and poured out the contents into the tea. The tea swirled for a while and then suddenly it turned a beautiful color of brown and the cup changed into a shiny ceramic material with beautiful carvings of roses and other flowers. Harry could even smell the flowers.

"Seems like I was mistaken", replied Harry. "This looks like a great success."

Harry picked up the cup and was about to drink when suddenly the cup started transforming into a flower shaped cup. Not satisfied with the resulting look of shock on George and Harry, the cup then started throwing out ceramic flowers at a ferocious speed. Pretty though they were, Harry and George ducked behind their chairs to avoid the beautiful looking missiles. The cup itself gradually swallowed the whole tea and after a few minutes of large crashes and bangs of breaking china, it became a large palm sized and unexpectedly peaceful flower.

After waiting through a few moments of inactivity, Harry poked the cup with his spoon. The now-I-am-a-flower cup instantly cracked and broke into thousands of pieces.

George let out a large sigh and sad down on his chair with a face that showed a year of sadness and depression.

"You and I really need to discuss something"


	4. Chapter 4: The SREW gang

**Author's Notes:**

How can I possibly apologize to all those who read the first 3 chapters and wanted to read more? I shamelessly left the story at chapter 3 and stopped any efforts to continue. I never thought I would be a good enough writer or that this story would make any difference to anyone. But while "studying" Harry and the goblet of Fire in Japanese, I looked back at my own story and showed it to my wife. She said it was silly but she smiled ! For me that is motivation enough, as I want this story to make people smile and give us something to enjoy away from the daily toils of life. That was the kind of magic Harry Potter bought to me. And maybe, just maybe, when I have kids, they might read this and say "Dad, not bad but I can make Harry do greater magic with my writing!"

**Disclaimer:**

The magic of Harry Potter has been created by JK Rowling and bought to us by Bloomsberg. They are the owners and receivers of all the smiles and joy the book has bought. I only hope to extend the happiness the book has bought without any claim of ownership, and an excuse from Mrs. Rowling for any damage to the characters.

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><p>The bright morning sunlight was now starting to move overhead, removing shadows and lighting narrow alleys. Diagon Alley may be a secret to Muggles, but the sun's light easily penetrated any magical shields and brought a fresh feel of midday with it. Almost on queue with the rising day, there was increasing roar of a shopping crowd in the streets of Diagon Alley.<p>

At 93 Diagon Alley, things were moving at a different pace. Unaware of the brightness of the day or the time, two people were sitting talking to each other. It seemed that they had a lot to say, because they had been sitting since morning. The place where they were sitting, a once-famous joke shop, seemed to be in paused state. Those familiar with the changes of the wind and the working of things, might have guessed that something important was at work, that two destinies were starting to come into play, two people troubled by war, grief, physical and mental pain were confiding in their difficulties. They were like a group left behind from a moving caravan, in a stalemate, as if they could only watch the world change, while they themselves could not change with it.

But something important was set in motion. Something that would change the life of these two young men. Was this going to resolve the anguish hidden in their hearts? The two young men were Harry and George and they were sitting talking about their problems, and the deep troubles hidden in their hearts.

"You and I need to discuss something"

To Harry, George's voice had sounded like the shattered cup. But the voice had not stopped. With sadness in his voice, George had continued to explain to Harry how hard it was to get on with life. How everything felt half empty or half invalid. There was no one to complete his jokes, no one to complete his suggestions, or even his sentences. His life, now only sad and gloomy, was always half complete. He had tried putting all his energies in the joke shop but nothing new was coming out. Even old jokes, tested and perfected, sometimes failed disastrously.

George recalled one time when two young wizards had bought and used Percuvian Total Darkness power, only to end up coming out completely black. The doctors at St. Mungo's were baffled at the transformation and incorrectly deduced that the 2 had become vampires. After failed attempts to feed them blood, the problem was finally detected and some whitening soap made from goat's milk was all that was needed. Fortunately, there was a good lesson in this, and for a while parents warned their kids that they better wash themselves otherwise they will become black and no one will recognize them. There was an all round good laugh and everyone forgot about the matter, except George who was losing confidence in the quality of his work.

Another time, George continued to recall, a revealing powder used to reveals a grandfather's secret diary kept locked in a secret vault. Unable to make the book come out, the spell produced a mist outside the house and started projecting all the grandfather's secrets like a movie theater. The neighboring muggles thought it was advertisement for a new movie (the grandfather, it seemed was very active, and his stories would have done any Hollywood story proud). However, the family was shocked at the exposure and the Ministry end up doing a through investigation. Fortunately though, the grandfather's dairy revealed a secret treasure that the family claimed, and the Ministry was glad to finally be able to finally explain a number of past incidents.

Harry could well imagine a big outdoor movie projector portraying everything going on inside. Secretly, he was a little glad George hadn't perfected something like that in his joke shop. A projection spell. The ministry would have a nightmare trying to ensure people's privacy. Not that Harry hadn't spied on other people during Howgarts and his Auror years, but that had been strictly for good...or so Harry hoped, leaving the ethical issues for another time.

"I just cannot seem to get up back on my feet. I just want to remember Fred in a better way. The only way I can think of is by doing better at the shop. That way people will remember Fred and what a great source of happiness he was in all of our lives."

This heartfelt confession seemed to have taken everything out of George. His head fell on to his palms and he went very silent. There will still signs that he was thinking of how things could have been if things didn't always seem to go wrong.

But Harry understood. Not really understood...Harry knew. His time with Dumbledore has been well spend. An idea had been forming in Harry and it finally bubbled up so that Harry could put it in words.

"It does not have to be this way, you know George", Harry said carefully and calmly. Harry's mind was racing again, much like it was racing one year ago, after challenging Voldemort in the final duel. Like then and now, Harry's calmness sorted all the ideas until Harry knew what was going to happen.

"Your problems and mine are the same and the complete opposite. We have to solve it together."

George took his face from his hands and looked through Harry. He could see that Harry was very serious and not trying to simply comfort him. Maybe there was something to what Harry had said, some deep branch of magic that wasn't well understood. A lot of what happened during the last great war had involved some difficult magic that Harry seemed to understand very well.

"Is it because you cannot catch dark wizards even though you almost have them, and I cannot cast a successful spell even though I can almost make it work?" replied George, reflecting the brilliant mind that drove the caretaker and many teachers of Hogwards up the wall, not to mention many of the recipients of items bought from Weasleys' joke shop.

"You have lost Fred and a part of him was in you, joined by love. Voldemort has died and a part of his was in me joined by desire for power. We both used what was given to us and used it as a powerful tool for modifying our luck and our success."

George had held on to his breath, not daring to let go for what was about to come.

"We have lost both these important attachments to us. We now cannot rely on them for support, comfort, or strength. We have to start anew, almost like learning how to use magic again."

"Implying that we pack up our bags and go back to Hogwarts to complete our education?" asked George, not sure whether to start grinning or start worrying.

"No", replied Harry now with absolute firmness in his voice. He knew what had to be done. "We have to cancel each others' absence of luck. We have to go on a mission together. We must balance each others' need for power and love."

Harry paused, a silly idea formed in his head and he could not say no to it. "We have to form the Society for Removal of Enchantments on Wizards".

The idea made so much sense that George could not help deny the truth of it. And moreover, the sense of a mission with Harry was energizing. George could feel his humorous self back again wanting to lash out and make fun of himself for all his miseries of last year. He had wasted a year of laughter, when he knew Fred would have wanted him to laugh and not stop.

"SREW? It is already starting to wear on to me." Grinned George. "Are you sure you don't want something like SPEW. We'll ask Hermione that we want to borrow it".

Harry himself could not stop a laugh. "We deserve the same rights as the elves, what with the success Hermione had with SPEW. Now it is our turn to do something with SREW, starting with ourselves of course".

"So, have you planned our first mission?", asked George.

"Yes", replied Harry. "I have a plan."

"May I know what it is?"

"We have to steal a level 1 mission from Ministry and take it upon ourselves to complete it".

"Level 1?"

"Yes, the most dangerous, darkest and important mission that Ministry can assign. It is only for the top most Aurors and requires permission from the head of the Auror mission and the Minister himself."

"Any reason why you want to die early and take me with you?" asked George with obvious humor.

"The more dangerous the mission, the greater the chance to draw each others' negative energies out and cancel them out." replied Harry.

"Sounds perfect! All we have to do is fool your department, steal a mission from some highly protected safe, and then proceed to fool the Minister into thinking you are up for the level 1 job. With our current states, it should be the easiest thing in the world." said George, grinning more and more at the idea of an insane and impossible mission.

"Don't forgot! We also have to complete a mission that we are neither trained nor equipped to do." replied Harry, not at all bothered by the insanity of the whole plan.

"Should be easy for a couple of people who have been running around Hogwarts doing all sorts of misdeeds without being caught." replied George clearing getting into a mischievous mood.

There was a silence in the store for a while, but the roar of Griffindor lion could almost be heard and two people who had been sitting oblivious of the rising sunlight were now generating a lot of energy themselves. The air was silently whispering about a plan for the perfect mischief worthy of the Weasley twins and that a man, not a boy, named Harry Potter would be doing it, with help from a George Weasley himself.


	5. Chapter 5: The gang's first task

Chapter 5: The gang's first task: Finding Harry some real work

Author's Notes:

Many thanks to everyone for their patience. My chapter upload rate is really bad and I seriously wonder if there will be anyone left following my story. ...Every chapter poses a particular problem, and this one made me realize I was making Harry too much like myself, with my problems. I was wondering if I should revise Harry's character, but then realized that all great stories have a moral. And the moral of this one is that just because someone was 'great' once and fell down from greatness, he/she can get back to greatness again. In fact the second time would be much better, more worth it and more lasting because of the amount of our conscious effort and our determination.

Disclaimer:

I am seriously spoiling Harry potter here and if by any chance I hurt anyone in the process, please understand that I'm only writing a fan fiction that cannot possible compare with JK Rowling's work (although how I can actually hurt someone or someone's feeling remains to be seen...)

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><p>It was late at night and Harry was lying on the bed thinking. The bed was cozy and comfortable and the night was a cool summer night, the kind that promises a wonderful sleep. For Harry, however, there were other matters that were still fighting away any desire for sleep, not including the scary looking heads all around the house which Harry was used to by now. Anything that gave alertness at night and droopiness in the morning was something to be wary of. But for Harry the distraction was important. After a long time he felt the same sense of direction and awareness of situation that made him do all the famous things of 1 year ago.<p>

But it was not fame that Harry was missing or the adventure, or even the sense of adrenaline. No…Harry was longing for the feeling or the sense of luck and a feel of things going right, like he knew what to do, as he usually felt before. But Harry could not rely on the secret part of Voldemort soul to gave him strength and confidence. No, Harry did not want it. But Harry did want to be able to forge himself to do great things while relying only on himself, his heart, his mind and his soul. The most important of which was of course asking Ginny to marry him, raising a few kids and doing good at work. Basically, all those ordinary things that made life great. But before that Harry had to take another challenge with George.

And Harry thought about their talk that day before (only about 10 hours ago, but it had passed mid-night). Harry's chance assignment had turned into a promise of a great turn of events and they could hardly wait for things to start moving. And so Harry lay awake. Of course a few thoughts of Ginny here and there could also be just as blameworthy for Harry's wakefulness.

Or, it may have been the dark and scary atmosphere of 12 Grimmauld Place. But knowing Harry, he probably loved every bit of the darkness including some of the spiders that terrorized Ron when he was here to stay overnight some time ago. This house was after all part of Sirus, his godfather, not just a memory but a wonderful memory.

Gradually, Harry relaxed and let his eyes guided him into a wonderful, dreamy sleep where Harry was playing with a young girl so much like Ginny. She reminded Harry of a single Lily in a pond, completely separate from a long bed of flowers and so Harry called her out Lily…Lily…

3 weeks had since passed and Harry was enjoying himself in his kitchen at 12 Grimmauld Place. Harry loved to call the place "His kitchen" because owning a kitchen meant he was finally growing into a man.

"Master must stop drinking so much coffee", croaked a voice to Harry from behind the kitchen table, bringing Harry back from his 'manhood' mood. Kreacher was now the master of the kitchen, thanks to the persistence of Hermione.

Harry was sitting snugly in a sofa he had especially bought in the kitchen to enjoy Kreacher's cooking and recently, coffee. Probably Hermione had something to do with it, as she had given Kreacher a book on fine coffee making. Cooking seemed all gibberish to Harry but the art of brewing the perfect coffee was the same in muggle world and wizarding world. And so Harry lay relaxing on his sofa in the kitchen smelling and tasting great coffee.

"And Kreacher must stop calling me 'master'", replied Harry moving his legs to the kitchen table, making the best of a rainy day with a nice mug of coffee.

"Nothing better than coffee on a rainy day like this", sighed Harry as he leaned on the sofa, thinking how far he had come from butterbeers to coffee. Things had changed, but then trust Hermione to force some of the changes by teaching Kreacher perfect coffee making. And it was not just the coffee. Sitting in the kitchen helped Harry to focus on some of his problems, especially when Kreacher was around to keep serving something (which was always).

"Alright, I will stop drinking once George gets here" said Harry after Kreacher didn't stop staring with his large lamp like eyes, almost as if Kreacher was counting each sip.

"Harry master is most kind to Kreacher", replied Kreacher with an obvious attempt to both hide and include the word 'master'. There was however, no indication that Kreacher was going to hit himself for this obvious disobedience. But there was every indication that Harry was going to enjoy as many cups as possible before George came. Harry was on his third cup without there being any indication of there being any sign of George, when something happened.

"Harry"

Out of nowhere, a familiar voice called out.

Harry jumped after hearing the voice, but because he had legs on the table, there was only one place to jump to, or rather fall to: backwards. The suddenness of the voice made Harry fall back along with the sofa in a very unceremonious and un-auror way.

Just before landing, Harry managed to grip his wand, somehow murmur "Wingardium leviosa" and flipped himself and the sofa backwards a few times ending with a perfect 10 landing next to the wall. The hot coffee cup had also ejected from Harry's hand, falling straight towards his face. Harry did two swishes of the wand, and the flying coffee drops all gathered together and rushed straight back into the cup. Harry caught the cup with perfect ease that only few besides world class seekers could attempt.

Kreacher said something like 'I'm too old for such antics', and 'kids now a days', before crashing into the kitchen floor with shock. Harry gently lifted Kreacher up and put him on his sofa and poured some of Kreacher's own coffee. Turning his attention back to where the voice came from, Harry saw much to his distress, it was Ginny calling from the fireplace at the other end of the Kitchen.

"Harry, I'm so sorry to call you unexpectedly. ", said a sad looking face but with a happiness in the eyes that only Harry could see: The happiness of the eminent future; a life with Harry. This however, did not make things easy for Harry, because of the possible trouble Harry could get into if his plan was known.

"Dad met George on the way to the Ministry and immediately bought him home. It has been a long time and we didn't know where George was. We were so relieved to see him, but then George told us everything".

Harry began to sweat now. He trusted George would never reveal their secret plan, but then again, that was the George of old. Was there the same George left? One who could easily get out of the most troublesome situations with ease, whether it was boring class, jealous girls, teachers roaming at night, or getting caught by Mr. Filch.

"I, eh, I…." replied back Harry, trying to work out exactly how much George would have revealed, or if he had fallen to family pressure. Harry knew Aunt Molly could be really persuasive and after losing Fred, she would not want anything to happen to George.

"Exactly what did George tell you?" said Harry, finally forming some sensible words.

"He told us that you had caught him trying to make jokes using illegal items."

Harry caught himself in time before he let out a 'Huh?' reply, forming a cough instead. But his face already got into a confused state, which he quickly transformed into a knowingly confused face, trying to improvise the best and understand George's plan.

"George told us that you were helping him get rid of all the illegal stuff and help with some of his work, to make new legal and fun jokes."

"Yes, I miss some of the jokes. It would be fun to have some of them back". Harry was hoping that the answer was neutral enough to not let Ginny suspect that something was going on.

"Thank you Harry. I love you and I know you will always be taking decisions that will be the best for us and our families."

Ginny's reply was slow and full of emotion. She let her words sink into Harry, and had a good look at him. For a minute or less, her eye made contact with Harry, and she said more than could be said in words.

They finally looked down together and Harry could hear a tearful "bye Harry", to which he heard himself reply "bye Ginny".

Kreacher tried to lift up Harry's spirits by making him a fresh cup of coffee, effectively swapping places, with Harry now needing support. Harry took the cup and replied thank you as nicely as he could muster up.

But Harry knew the real solution to his life was in executing their 'plan' and before their plan could be put in place, they had to go to an inn and get a certain wizard named Pilewood drunk or out of his senses.

Eventually Harry heard the soft closing of the door upstairs. It was getting late into the afternoon, and since Ginny's talk in the morning, it was already more than 5 hours. But Harry had used this time to patiently evaluate their plan. All that was missing was a part of the plan that involved George's role.

"Sorry Harry. Ginny told me she talked to you. "

George continued without waiting for Harry to reply, "I know you wanted a break before planning for your future with Ginny. I hope the delay is not because it would be hard … to call me brother-in-law."

Harry could see George entering in the kitchen with the invisibility cloak in one hand and lots of homemade cooking from Aunt Molly in the other hand. The light mood with which George entered was infectious. Talking with Ginny made Harry worry about the future but also made him really happy, and now the happiness was bubbling up slowly lightening up Harry's mood.

"Family is important, and Ginny is a great motivation. She'll make a great wife. That is if we don't get caught first and get into some serious trouble. Plus if her cooking is anything like Aunt Molly's I'll be happy to be a lazy husband" replied Harry, helping himself to some of Aunt Molly's pie on top of the pile of food.

"Well, she might also be a little too much like mum, and then you'll be severely inquired into if you ever get late, or go wondering around with your brother-in-law on an impossible mission" replied George, with obvious reference to their current predicament and series of predicament about to be taken on.

"Let us not worry about it for now, we will try to keep it extra quiet from here" said Harry, and continued, "What about the plan for tonight."

"Dad almost caught me, but I think he was too worried about me to notice what I was doing. Of course, since you were on my case of potential dangerous magical items, I used you as an excuse. "

"Good thinking". Then Harry thought for a few seconds and added "I hope".

"Anyways, the plan is on. Its tonight"

Harry felt relieved and excited. Finally, the plan was on and it was going to start from tonight. Harry was trying to be patient and recently showed no signs of being impatience, but secretly, he could not wait anymore. And so Harry and George immediately set to work finishing the extra coffee Kreacher had made. All the while they were making notes, planning, re-planning and deciding the timing of each phase of the plan. They knew most of it didn't matter. So many things could go wrong, but they were hoping that their luck would be back, as well as their humor, with which they would finally start their journey to transform themselves.

Their plan was going to begin with the wizard Pilewood that Harry had been thinking earlier, and and their task was to bewitch his reading glasses. The problem was that Pilewood was the head auror's secretary and had some extremely unfavorable traits such as being highly suspicious along with being an extremely careful wizard. Could SREW's first task be a success? The glint in Harry's eye had the answer: yes. They would succeed, because they wanted to, because they have been waiting for more than a year for this chance, and because they probably had the world's best coffee just before leaving 12 Grimmauld Place for the mission.


End file.
